Norton v. . McDevit

Citations

• 30 S.E. 24
• 122 N.C. 755
• 1898 N.C. LEXIS 343

Syllabus

<p>Action to Declare a Trust and to Recover Land — Pleading — Implied Trust — Evidence—Statute of Limitations — Tenant by Curtesy.</p> <p>1. IVhile the technical exactness observed under the old system of pleading is not required under the Code system, substantial accuracy is required in the statement of the plaintiff’s cause of action and of the defendant’s ground of defence.</p> <p>2. In the trial of an action against plaintiff’s step-father to have a trust declared in land and for possession of the land, evidence of a declaration by plaintiff’s mother (under whom defendant claimed and who died before the trial), made while she was in possession, to the effect that she was holding the land for her children, was competent to show the nature of the mother’s holding.</p> <p>3. When the fact is found, without explanation or evidence of a different intention, that land was bought and paid for with the money of one and title taken to another, the law creates the latter a trustee for the former.</p> <p>4. Where a trust is created by the purchase of land with the money of one person and its conveyance to another, it is a trust created by implication of law, and the statute may begin to run before the trust is broken; otherwise, in the case of an “express trust.”</p> <p>5. The statute of limitation does not run against a cestui que trust in possession.</p> <p>6. The seven years statute of limitations (Section 153 of The Coda) does not apply to an action brought to obtain possession of land bought for plaintiff’s mother with plaintiff’s money but conveyed to the former, the action being brought against the husband of the grantee after her death.</p> <p>7. A husband is not entitled as tenant by the curtesy to hold land held by his wife as trustee for her children by a former marriage.</p>